Metropolitan Hotel

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The Metropolitan Hotel is a 180-room historic structure located at 309 Asbury Avenue in Asbury Park, New Jersey and was one of the last large hotels operating in Asbury Park before it closed in 1989.

The current structure is not the original, although a hotel has operated on the site under this name since the 1880’s. The main structure is a Spanish Revival style built in a rectangle, with a four story hip roof, central pavilion, two-story porticos with fluted Doric columns, and balustrade and enclosed porches. Decorative touches include the stucco surfacing, parapet roof and canales. The metal marquee is a later addition, and there is a newer motel wing on the west side of the property ^[1].

Longtime owners Martin and Sylvia Weinblatt received $2.25 million for their hotel when they sold it in 1987 to Jersey City developers Karim Ahmed Elsaid and Gomaa Elsaid, who filed for bankruptcy protection the next year. The Metropolitan is currently owned by a group of Morristown investors called 309 Corp., who purchased the property for $150,000 in 1993 (from a group that acquired it from a bank for $10,150 earlier that year). 309 Corp had planned to open the 38-room hotel annex to people who needed housing in Asbury Park while they sought financing, but the city turned down their request because of changed zoning laws ^[2].

The Metropolitan is listed on the Monmouth County Inventory of Historic Sites, and is located in the Grand Avenue Institutional/Professional historic district.